Film Poster Analysis of The Uninvited

The poster is of the Uninvited a 2009 American film remake based on a South Korean film from 2003.

The colours of the poster are dark featuring only two colours, black and white; this gives the assumption immediately that the film has a very dark tone, therefore relating to the horror genre. The darkness of the women’s face suggests that there is not much known about her, suggesting possible evil or that she should be feared. The whiteness and fog in the background relates to the fact that there must be something unnerving about what is outside.

The main image in the foreground of the poster is of a woman who is looking into the window, her face is blacked out and so it is not possible to see her facial features, however in the background of the image it is very white, this is in contrast to darkness of the woman’s face. The window makes up whole of the film poster which increases the realism of the main image. In the background of the image it features a number of trees which appear to have no leaves on them, suggesting that it is because of the time of season or possibly because something may have killed them, it can also suggest how there is no life outside of the house except from the woman featured. 

The poster features a mainly visual message of the girl looking into the window, however the tagline used on the poster says ‘Fear Moves In’, this tagline helps to make the audience assume that the girl in the image is too be feared, suggesting that it is fear itself further adds to the idea that the film must be reasonably scary.

As the film is intended to be a horror film and based on the overall image of the poster I would assume that the film is probably intended for a target audience of age 15 to 30, this is because based on the assumption that the girl in the poster is fear therefore the film must be along the lines of a psychological horror as they usually feature what people believe to be a normal person when in actual fact they have psychological problems, audiences of this genre tend to be a little more sophisticated, and so enjoy a film with a deeper meaning. 

The main possible persuasive techniques used by the poster are the writing in the centre of the poster which states, ‘From the producers of The Ring and Disturbia’; this phrase helps to get the audience’s attention because it adds value to the film when it is related to another successful film of the same genre, people often look for films made by the same producer, director, or writer, this is because they believe other films with have the same overall production value. The statement about having the same producers as two other films is   Unique Selling Point. However there are no critics quoted on the front of the poster which could mean either reviews of the film were not positive or the poster is an early release therefore there are currently no reviews at the present. Star ratings from critics can be an important aspect to film enthusiast who may only go to see films which have a good critics rating.

The gratifications which the movie poster promises are mainly the fear factor of the film, quoting similar films like The Ring and Disturbia suggests The Uninvited will be similar in some way to them. 

When a person views the poster their immediate attention will probably of surprise because the woman in the poster is looking in through the window which is very personal and scary, assuming that the woman is looking into the window of a house, which are usually a place of security and somewhere people can feel safe it can make people feel unable to escape evil and that it is looking for them. 

The film title text is bold and hand written, this could make people assume that the woman has written it, this is also true for the tagline. Common among horror films is the taking of innocent objects and things turning them into something which is scary, such as the un-joined hand writing. 

The tagline ‘Fear moves in’ is catchy and will probably stick in the minds of the people who read it, the tagline suggests that the film will involve something which is to be fearful of such as the women with a blacked out face featured in the poster.

The poster does have some persuasive elements such as the way it has darkened the woman’s face so that it cannot be seen, as such it does not give anything away, therefore the audience may get the urge to see the film so that they can see the women’s face and see what she looks like. Also audiences may be drawn into the tagline which helps them to get an understanding of the film and the desire to go and see it.